Homecoming
by Chocolate Wolf
Summary: The Doctor visits a resort planet and finds someone he didn't expect.


A/N: This was written for needtakehave on LJ for her donation to the fic fundraiser challenge for the flood in Australia.

Disclaimer: Just playing in the Doctor Who sandbox.

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**Homecoming**

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_"We only part to meet again." -John Gay_

The TARDIS took the Doctor and the two newlyweds to a small resort planet on the Palantian Galaxy, her small gift to the couple on their honeymoon. Amy looked ecstatic as the doors opened to a large Rocha stone hall, pink and green threads of color in every grain of soft sand that covered the floor. She flirted outrageously over her shoulder with both Rory and the Doctor, making the former blush fiercely and the latter fidget uncomfortably.

"Are you suuurrre you don't want to join us, Doctor?" she purred, laying the bedroom eyes on thick.

"Quite sure. Now go have fun, you two love-muffins!" He made a shooing motion at them with his hands. "I'll be—_exploring_." The Doctor looked around with a grin.

"As will hubby here. Come on!" Amy's smile was almost predatory and Rory looked a little queasily at the Doctor.

"That look on his face. I know that look. We'll come back and there'll be alien invasions and plots and explosions—" Rory's worried tones grew faint as Amy dragged him away from the blue box.

The Doctor wasn't sure if he'd ever visited this particular planet before. He'd tended to avoid resort planets after the incident at Midnight, and before that he'd found them rather dull. Really, he couldn't imagine sitting still long enough to get a Croxn facial wrap when there were adventures to be had. He bounced back into the TARDIS to get a few readings from the blinking monitors and found an interesting pocket of green energy in the market sector.

Before adventuring, first things first. Shoving his hand into his jacket pocket, he searched for the familiar, metallic surface of the sonic screwdriver and found something unexpectedly smoother and thinner. He pulled it out and studied it curiously—a single, silver hoop earring. He caressed the surface, getting faint psychic traces from the metal when his skin brushed over the fingerprints of its owner. His mind flashed with images of the pink and yellow woman who still haunted the sections of the TARDIS he refused to enter. He smelled the faintest trace of chips and vinegar and shoved the earring back into his pocket.

"Not funny." The TARDIS remained silent and he exited the ship in a rush, forgetting entirely about the sonic screwdriver and Amy and Rory and anything besides brown irises that had always reminded him of the smell of coffee and chocolate. The sharpness under his ribs had eased with the time that had passed since Bad Wolf Bay and lessened even more after his latest regeneration. It faded, but it still hadn't gone—not completely.

The crowds thickened as he walked further from the spa area and into the market sector. He brightened as he recognized the species passing by, all looking remarkably at ease in this small, thriving resort planet. His eyes began to take in the wares being sold in the domes and sky-platforms on either side of the avenue. A particularly large dome displayed a hologram that shifted from one product to another, and when it flashed to the image of an oddly-shaped, red hat he was halfway through the door in two seconds in search of a new fez.

The Doctor chuckled to himself as he stepped into the shop, the interior being much larger than the exterior. He caught the eye of the owner and mouthed _"bigger on the inside"_ with an accompanying gesture; he merely got an eye roll for his troubles. There! On the display shelves furthest from the door sat a fez, just as vibrant as his last and with a tassel! It had a tassel! He barely managed to restrain his happy dance and settled for a small skip as he snagged the prize and made his purchase.

Exiting the Shop of Excellent Taste—for it would forever be thus known to him—he donned the fez and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, careful not to brush his fingers against anything else in his pockets.

"Let's see what this energy disturbance is about, eh?" He muttered to himself as he worked, tweaking the sonic to the right detection levels. It began to hum quietly as he pointed it north, the direction from where the energy radiated. "Green energy. That's—a Nintendo. What are you doing with a Nintendo? Ah!" The device led him east, towards the nourishment section of the marketplace.

The readings pinpointed here; he looked up. Five feet in front of him—past the figures of shoppers, vacationers, tourists, locals and government androids—was a short figure with shoulder-length blond hair, plump lips and brown irises that had always reminded him of the smell of coffee and chocolate. He should have expected this, expected her. He should have anticipated that seeing her sad eyes at Bad Wolf Bay could _never_ be his last memory of _the_ Rose Tyler—that she would never rest until she stood where she was, on this side of the universe, the proper one. To yell at him, laugh at his hat, talk his ear off. Ask him 'why?' Tyler women were nothing if not verbose, nothing if not liberal with their tongues, after all. He could see it now, a small pink sliver of flesh between her teeth as she flashed his clone her standard megawatt smile. Their fingers were tightly meshed in a connection that would never yield and with time the skin on all digits in question would grow thin and rough with age. He stared at an old image of himself, holding hands with Rose. The other Doctor caught his eye and, looking puzzled, turned Rose around to face him.

Her eyes swept over the eleventh Doctor, taking him in. "That's—not you." She hesitated.

Hearts pounding, he stepped closer. "Rude and still not ginger. Girl hair." He pulled at a strand and her eyes fixed on the fez.

"What is that?" She pointed.

"It's a fez. Fezzes are cool."

The other Doctor sucked in a sudden breath. "Prefer bowlers myself."

She gave a small smile. "I found my way back. We did." She pulled on the other's hand. "There was a crack in the dimensions we managed to fortify."

"Torchwood?"

"Yeah." She stared at him.

"A permanent crack?"

She waited a moment, weighing her thoughts. "Yeah. You're so young."

The other Doctor made a sound of disgust. "Oh, what am I? The Face of Bo? I _knew_ you'd make something out of that wrinkle; I just _knew_ it!"

Rose laughed and smacked her companion on the arm. "Shut up, you!"

"Questions?" The new Doctor hinted with a smile.

"Always. Chips?" She asked hopefully.

He grinned. "Always."

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A/N: Reviews are love.


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